Pirates, a Wookie, an Other, Oh My: Adventure Con 2007

Song Lyric of the Day:

There’s no place I can be / Since I’ve found Serenity / And you can’t take the sky from me

Sonny Rhodes / “The Ballad of Serenity”

9:48PM.
Ah, where to begin describing my experience at Adventure Con 2007 yesterday? I guess the most obvious place to start is to point out how much larger this year’s event was compared to last year’s. Las Vegas-based company-run vs. locally-run = a lot more celeb
rities, a bigger turnout, and a galaxy of costumes. And a lot more money spent by me.

My friend, Tamara, and I arrived around 11:30AM. Even though the con had started at 10AM, there was already a huge crowd there, with particularly long lines for Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, and John Romita, Jr.

In our search for Rich, who’d been there since opening with the East Tennessee Gamers, we essentially ended up walking the entire floor. Now that we could see who was there, it was time to plan our attack.

Not surprisingly, I made a beeline for Peter Mayhew. I’d waited years to
meet the man who played Chewbacca, and I wasn’t going to delay it anymore. I paid my autograph fee, got in line, and handed my camera to Tamara. I think I was pretty giddy by the time I got up to the table and shook his hand. Of course, Peter Mayhew did not come close to being as cuddly as I know Chewbacca (hello, distorted reality!) would have been, but he was polite enough. I got my photo, thanked him, and skipped off to tell Rich and show him my autographed photo.
After checking in with the spouse, Tamara and I made our way to the other side of the convention center floor, where I decided to pop by Gigi Edgley‘s (Chiana on Farscape) booth to say hi. She was very gracious as I shook her hand in greeting, and I told her that I wanted to just say hi, wish her a nice day, and meet her just so I could tell my friend that I met his future wife. She laughed and said “That’s funny. Is he a nice guy?” I told her that yes, he’s a good guy, ex-Navy. “Well, that’s good.” Her Australian accent would totally melt him. So, Sam in Virginia, if you’re reading this, I MET YOUR FUTURE WIFE.

I then went to work convincing Tamara to get up the nerve to meet Walter Koenig, Chekov on Star Trek. She said she’d meet him if I would get up the nerve to meet Richard Kiel, who played Jaws in two Bond movies and Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore. I agreed and hopped in line with her. Bada bing, bada boom, I was in line at Mr. Kiel’s table before I knew it. I shook his hand, which completely engulfed mine. He turned out to be a very sweet man and laughed when I told him how my husband used to call me “Jaws” when I had braces back in the day. After choosing a photo for him to autograph (I went with a shot from The Spy Who Loved Me), I asked if it would be alright for me to take a photo with him using my camera. He happily agreed and patted the chair next to him for me to sit down. Tamara’s handiwork:
Tamara also got his autograph and a photo with him.* After Mr. Kiel, I was on to Captain Jack Sparrow. There he was, at his own booth across from Anthony Daniels, Jeremy Bulloch, William Mapother, and Ron Glass. I approached him and asked if he charged for photos. “Absolutely not,” was his reply, so I handed my camera to Tamara. We posed for the photo and I thanked him. Then I asked what his name was. He sort of curtsied and said, “Why, Cap’n Jack Sparrow, love.” Ah, an actor who refused to break character. Very admirable. “Well, thank you, Captain Jack. It was nice meeting you.”
I did an about-face from Captain Jack’s booth and headed over to William Mapother. I paid another autograph fee and hopped in line. When I reached his table, Mr. Mapother extended his hand and asked what my name was. He also asked what Tamara’s name was. He would turn out to be the nicest celebrity we met at Adventure Con. He asked me where I was from, if I was having fun. He said he liked what he’d seen of Knoxville and wished he could see more of it. I told him how my husband and I were huge fans of his portrayal of the evil Other Ethan on Lost, and how we really enjoyed this last season despite the naysayers (guess what — he expects to be back!). He thanked me for our support, then laughed when I told him how Rich insisted the photo be autographed to both of us, not just me. When I told him how to spell my name, he asked why an “ie” and not “y.” I told him how I got fed up with Peppermint Patty jokes when I was younger so I changed it, and he had another laugh at that. We talked about the late, great Threshold, and he told us how he was doubly disappointed when the show was cancelled since he’d been scheduled to start filming a new episode the very next day, one in which his character was going to visit Carla Gugino via dreams (which would have been way cool). I asked if I could get a photo with him, but he said that due to his agency’s rules, he couldn’t unless I’d paid for the Photo Booth. I asked him if he could hold up the photo he autographed and he said, “Absolutely” before posing. I really admired that he took his time talking to me (and Tamara), as well as his other fans. He shook both our hands again, addressed us both by name when he said bye, and told us to have fun the rest of the day. And then it was time for lunch.

Of course, on our way to the exit, I decided to stop by David Prowse‘s (Darth Vader himself) booth, which was on the way, so I could say hi. I made my way to his table, shook his hand, and said hi. I told him how I’d actually met him here, in Knoxville, several years ago. His response: “Really? I thought my first visit here was three years ago.” He looked at me for a second before asking, “How old were you when I met you?” I told him that I was a freshman or sophomore in college at the time, and jogged his memory by recounting how we’d had lunch at Kanpai restaurant and that I had a photo of me sitting on his lap on account of his broken leg. Now it was his turn to correct me: “I’ve never had a broken leg.” But he was in a cast at the time, I countered. “Ah, that’s right — I had broken my ankle.” He thanked me for stopping by to say hi and then Tamara and I continued on our way out.

Tamara and I checked to make sure we could get back in before leaving the convention center, then headed for Market Square where we settled on La Costa. My first visit there — the verdict: good food, slow service. After some text messages, I finally got a hold of Rich and got his to-go order. Stuffed, we headed back to the convention center. Our first order of business was finding Tricia and her husband, Dave, in the crowd near the will call booth. While Tamara looked for them, I ran outside to take photos of a Star Wars-themed wedding taking place. I tell you, you haven’t really lived until you’ve seen Boba Fett as the Best Man in a wedding.I went back in and found Tamara, Tricia, and Dave and we headed down to the floor. While Tricia and Dave took in the stars and sites, Tamara and I headed over to Ron Glass’s table. Another autograph fee, another line. I got to his table, shook his hand, and said hi. He asked Tamara and I how we were doing, and we told him we were fine and enjoying the con. I added that my family have been fans of his since his Barney Miller days all the way through to Firefly. While he was signing a photo (another one for me and Rich), I asked if I could take a photo with him; turns out he had the same situation as Mr. Mapother did regarding the Photo Booth. His agent said I could take a photo while he signed the photo. By the time I got my camera ready, he teased me about being late to take the photo. Mr. Glass then went on to tell me and Tamara about a grade-school teacher of his who taught her students, “If you can’t be exact, you’re nothing!” He pounded his fist against the table for emphasis and laughed. I asked if he could hold up the photo he signed and he obliged. We shook hands again and headed off to catch the costume parade upstairs.

Once upstairs, w
e found good viewing points, I took photos and filmed the parade walk by,** I got a candid photo of Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation) walking by, and we headed back down to the main floor.Now it was time to meet Martin Klebba, Marty in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. My sister, Vanessa, really wanted his autograph, so I didn’t want to disappoint her. I went through the by-now-familiar routine (pay, get ticket, get in line, wait) and finally got to his table, along with my trusty sidekick best friend, Tamara. We told him how we love him in the Pirates movies, and I added that I enjoyed his portrayal of Randall on Scrubs. He told me to let NBC know that I liked his character: “Bring Randall back!” I told him I’d do what I could (I’m sure NBC.com has a contact us form) and asked if we could get a photo with him. I handed my camera to his agent, and Tamara and I posed with him. I then convinced Tamara to take her turn posing with Captain Jack Sparrow, who greeted her with a sly “Parlay?” as she approached. I posed with a man dressed as Lando Calrissian, we both posed with a Stormtrooper, then the four of us headed to hear Billy Dee Williams and Irvin Kershner, the director of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, speak in the lecture hall. Their discussion was very funny, with us learning a few things throughout: Mr. Kershner has a gift for anecdotes (particularly about a trained monkey as Yoda) while Mr. Williams ended up on Lost thanks to Jimmy Kimmel’s fondness for Mr. Williams’s “Personally Yours” segments (admittedly inspired by Christopher Walken’s “The Continental”) on his official website and Kimmel’s love of the show. Go figure. After their half-hour discussion ended, we moved to better seats closer to the stage to hear Anthony Daniels speak. A couple of minutes later a voice came over the speakers: “Get ready to meet one of the most fascinating people on this planet. Yayyyyyyyyyy!” Then Anthony Daniels popped out from behind the curtain to wild applause; the man knows how to make an entrance. Several of us were taking photos, which most of us very quickly stopped doing when he pointed out that we were “pointing red and green lasers at me, and I don’t like it.” He actually ended up confiscating one man’s camera (and another kid’s cell phone) to teach us a lesson. Ah, if only I could’ve recorded his discussion. It was a genius mix of stand-up comedy-quality personal anecdotes combined with an etiquette lesson. I have to say, the man is quite a character. After an hour of keeping us completely enthralled, he sincerely thanked all of us for being fans, both young and old, and for just being people who liked him and who liked C-3PO — a true gentleman. I did get a photo on the sly before he scared me into putting my camera away:
We made our way back down to the main floor one more time, where I said bye to Rich before heading out for the day. I then decided, spur-of-the-moment, that, even though I couldn’t afford an autograph at this point (I was brrrrroke), I wanted to say hi to Billy Dee Williams anyway. So I did. I shook Lando’s hand! He was very gracious — the man is smooth.

Back to Market Square for dinner at Tomato Head (“Hey! Chekov is eating at Tomato Head!”) and then home.

So now you can see why it took me a day to recover and write this recap.

***

*All my Adventure Con 2007 photos are now uploaded to Flickr (as of 6/5/07).

**Yet another short video to upload to YouTube, whenever that may be.

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